Starbucks' Schultz: 'Solve the Problem!'

By Derek Thompson

"Solve the problem!" Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz repeated multiple times in an interview at the Washington Ideas Forum where he blasted partisan politics in Washington "We have a crisis of leadership and confidence in Congress and we're drifting toward mediocrity," he told Chris Wallace of Fox News. "This is not the America our parents promised."

Schultz made news last month when he published an open letter asking business leaders to withhold campaign donations until Congress came together to pass a deficit reduction plan and acted on the jobs crisis. "I don't want to support the status quo," Schultz said. "I don't want to feed the beast."

Wallace pressed on the issue, saying "there is a basic
philosophical disagreement in this town" between those who believe
government is the solution versus those who believe equally fervently
that government is the problem.

Schultz resisted blaming one
party over another, instead saying, "we need cooperation. We need
compromise. If this was a business, the problems would be solved. Solve
the problem."

The Starbucks CEO reviewed the history of the
Marshall Plan designed to protect Europe from economic collapse and
stop the march of communism after World War II. "Is there any way
that something close to the Marshall Plan could possibly get through a
committee [today]?" he said. "The domestic agenda the problems are at
least as great as the 1940s. We need a comprehensive commitment."

Schultz,
who grew up in a modest family and said his success in life represented
the epitome of the American Dream, said his greatest fear was that
Congress' dithering would crush the middle class. The lack of solutions
could engender "anger and frustration [that] could have unintended
consequences could lead to unrest in America."

He blamed ideology and "the season of reelection" for stalemate in Washington.

In
one particularly hot moment, Schultz quoted George Will who said last week that Washington was working.
"Is he out of his mind?" Schultz said. "Is he in a coma?"

Schultz,
who supported President Obama in 2008, said he was disappointed not
solely in the president but in Washington.

Starbucks provides health
care for 130,000 people, Wallace said, including part-time workers. So
how did Schultz feel about the Obama health care law that could raise
insurance demands on smaller companies? "As its currently written, I
don't believe that mandate would be good for small businesses," Schultz
said, predicting that the mandate for small- to medium-sized companies
would be reformed.

Schultz suggested that after many
public companies let people go to be leaner through the recession, a
"new muscle memory was built" in American business that has made
companies more profitable with fewer people. He also cited the headwinds
of low demand and high uncertainty.

Schultz also said the Occupy Wall Street movement presages unrest across the country.